How James Blunt prevented World War III – but not how you think

JAMES Blunt says he prevented World War III. How so? Were his song splayed on loop across the battlefields until everyone agreed to stop shooting?

Blunt says that when in Kosovo he disobeyed an order to shoot at Russian troops who had arrived first at Pristina airfield. It was 1999.

British Gen Sir Mike Jackson backed him by saying:

“I’m not going to have my soldiers be responsible for starting World War III.”

Says Blunt:

“I was given the direct command to overpower the 200 or so Russians who were there. I was the lead officer with my troop of men behind us… The soldiers directly behind me were from the Parachute Regiment, so they’re obviously game for the fight. The direct command [that] came in from Gen Wesley Clark was to overpower them. Various words were used that seemed unusual to us. Words such as ‘destroy’ came down the radio.

“We had 200 Russians lined up pointing their weapons at us aggressively, which was… and you know we’d been told to reach the airfield and take a hold of it. And if we had a foothold there then it would make life much easier for the Nato forces in Pristina. So there was a political reason to take hold of this.

“And the practical consequences of that political reason would be then aggression against the Russians.”

So. He stopped World War III?

“Absolutely. And that’s why we were querying our instruction from an American general.”

Instead of killing the Russians, Blunt’s boys encircled the airfield and waited.

“And after a couple of days the Russians there said: ‘Hang on we have no food and no water. Can we share the airfield with you?’.”

Blunt adds:

“There are things that you do along the way that you know are right, and those that you absolutely feel are wrong, that I think it’s morally important to stand up against, and that sense of moral judgement is drilled into us as soldiers in the British army.”

He did not make the Russian’s each buy one of his albums nor listen to his songs. He’s saying that for the Chinese…